Man would look at child sex abuse when feeling ‘horny’

A PAEDOPHILE told police he looks at images of child sex abuse when he is feeling “horny”, a court has heard.

When police raided Callum Hilton’s house they found he had more than 1,000 sickening photos and videos of children being abused on his mobile phone and in an online storage account.

He would later tell police that he was part of an online community of “like-minded people” who discussed child sex abuse and shared pictures.

Swansea Crown Court heard police executed a search warrant at Hilton’s Carmarthenshire home in June last year as it was suspected images of child sex abuse were being downloaded at the address.

Ashanti-Jade Walton, prosecuting, said officers arrested the 21-year-old and took him to Ammanford police station for questioning.

The court heard police found some 800 images on his mobile and Hilton told officers about an account he had with the online photo storage and sharing service Dropbox which contained more images.

Miss Walton said in total police found Hilton had almost 1,200 images including 169 of Category A - the most extreme kind. One of the images showed a two-year-old boy wearing a nappy being sexually abused.

The court heard the defendant told police he would look at the images of children after first viewing adult pornography and becoming “horny”. He said he would then pleasure himself while looking at children. However, in subsequent interviews with a probation officer he changed that position.

Hilton, of Gosport Street, Laugharne, admitted three counts of possession of indecent images. He has no previous convictions.

Kate Williams, for Hilton, said it was clear the defendant had found being challenged by the probation officer about his beliefs and motivations

“difficult”. The advocate said that “given matters in his past” she was inviting the court to give the defendant a chance to tackle the issues in his life.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said he had read the four probation reports into the defendant and he shared the author’s opinion that Hilton was in denial about his sexual interest in children and as such rehabilitation was unlikely to succeed.

Giving the defendant a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, the judge sentenced him to a total of six months prison of which he will serve up to half before being released on licence. Hilton will be a registered sex offender for seven years.